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'SEAHAWK fan' Walter Jones is nervous about the Super Bowl, and a potentially super personal honor

Walter Jones' 3rd Annual Turkey Bowl for HEALS

Walter Jones, left, is a candidate to join Huntsville businessman and ex-Steeler great John Stallworth, right, in the Hall of Fame. They met before the Walter Jones' 3rd Annual Turkey Bowl for HEALS last November (Eric Schultz / eschultz@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Walter Jones has figured out the best way to describe his current role on the Seattle football landscape.

"I'm a diehard Seahawk fan," he said. "I will be a Seahawk for the rest of my life. This is where I started my career and where I ended it. So you have to put 'SEAHAWK' in big letters, and put 'fan' in little ones."

Two significant events in New York this weekend have the attention of Jones, the long-time Seahawks offensive tackle who has a home in Huntsville and who was raised in Aliceville.

On Sunday, his former team will meet Denver in the 48th edition of the Super Bowl. It's the Seahawks' second Super Bowl, the first coming in 2005, after a season in which Jones blew apart two-lane-highway holes in the line for ex-Alabama running back Shaun Alexander, who scored a then-record 27 touchdowns.

On Saturday, Jones could be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in this, his first year of eligibility. Jones and Kevin Greene, the former Auburn University player and former Oxford resident are among the 17 nominees the Hall, which will enshrine from five to seven of those nominees on Aug. 2. Most observers believe Jones is a shoo-in.

Jones would become the second Madison County resident in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining John Stallworth, the former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver, a member of the Class of 2002.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it," Jones said in an interview with al.com. "You hear people talk about it. You try to hone in on your emotions and what's going to happen if my name is called. I don't know what my emotions will be if I'm in the top five, and you have to prepare yourself if you're not called."

Jones was widely considered the premier offensive tackle of his generation, a brilliant "blind side" player before the phrase became part of the lexicon.

He was called for holding only six times in more than 5,700 pass plays and allowed only 23 sacks - once every 248 pass attempts.

"When you go into the NFL, it wasn't about being a Hall of Famer," Jones said. "I was just saying, get in the league and prove I can play in this game and I can be consistent and do it the right way. It's a great honor for me to sit here and be waiting.

"For me to even be talking about this is shocking. You think about a lot of stuff, but I never had it on my list of this is what I wanted to do. I just wanted to play this game and make a career out of it."

Jones was the sixth pick of 1997 draft; in 2012, Sports Illustrated rated the Seahawks' selection of Jones the best No. 6 pick in the history of the NFL draft since the AFL-NFL merger. The Seahawks owned the 12th pick, but traded up with Tampa Bay to nab Jones, swapping the first-round spots and throwing in their third-round pick. (The Bucs nabbed Warrick Dunn, a solid performer for years, with the 12th choice and got defensive back Ronde Barber in the third.)

Tag Ribary, then an assistant in the scouting department but later the team's director of pro personnel, told Seattle journalist Clare Farnsworth, "The decision was we had to get into position to get him. Where would this franchise be without Walter? He was just so good for so long."

Truth be told, Jones is probably more nervous about the Hall of Fame announcement than he was the Super Bowl in which he played. And probably more nervous for the current Seahawks than he is the Hall of Fame.

"I bleed blue and green," he said. "I love the Seahawks. This is the organization that took a chance on me and picked me in the draft."

He laughed softly when asked about Richard Sherman, Seattle's defensive back who has been the focus of so much pre-Super Bowl attention.

"The guy is great. He proves it on the field every Sunday," Jones said. "He works hard and he's done it consistently. Honestly, that (trash-talking) is part of the game. Those guys play a tough position. They're trying to cover a guy while they're going backwards. You've got to protect the field and you're back-pedaling the majority of the time. If you're going to talk, you've got to back it up, and this guy backs it up every Sunday."

Though center Max Unger is the only Seahawk who was a Jones teammate, coach Pete Carroll had taken over as Jones was wrapping up his career. And Jones is a frequent and welcomed guest at the Seahawks facility.

"You look at the team they've got, it's going to be around for a while," he said. "These guys are built to be (at the top) for a couple of years. I'm looking for great things from this team for years to come.

"I'm happy for them. Hopefully they'll go out there and put the icing on the cake. This is what you work for, to get to this moment. It's the biggest game. I'm anxious to see what's going to happen. Hopefully they'll go out and bring the Super Bowl trophy back to Seattle."

Where, perhaps, they'll be greeted by a newly minted Pro Football Hall of Fame selection.